In recent times, the popularity of media content, such as broadcasted videos and news as well as broadcasted songs, has grown significantly. This media content can be viewed on media appliances such as Digital Video Recorders (DVRs), Television (TV) sets, Digital Video Disc (DVD) players/recorders, personal computers, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), cellular phones, and digital video cameras. Typically, the media content is broadcasted on different channels. Media appliances scan the channels to check the availability of media content on those channels. Thereafter, the appliances tune on to the channels.
However, the scanning operation can typically take several minutes, or even longer, when the number of channels to be scanned is large. Further, while the scanning operation is being performed on a media appliance, no other operation, including that of viewing media content, can be performed simultaneously. This causes inconvenience to the user of the media appliance.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated, relative to other elements, to help in improving an understanding of the embodiments of the present invention.